NMC to release draft Prabhag system for civic polls on Feb 1
| Date :31-Jan-2022 |
Staff Reporter
Finally, the suspense over transformation of Prabhag limitations for the forthcoming elections of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) will end on February 1. A communication to this effect was conveyed by Maharashtra Election Commission to NMC notified the schedule for the Prabhag system along with the timeline for completing the process.
Kiran Kurundkar, Secretary, State Election Commission, in the letter stated that NMC officials should complete the entire process and sent the draft of Prabhag system by March 2.
Owing to addition of six new seats in view of increase in population of city, SEC ordered rejig of the Prabhag system of NMC to reflect the changed demographic quotient. The current body of NMC, it was elected in year 2007, had strength of 151, this included six nominated members, and now total number of corporators would increase
to 156. There, however, is no change in the number of nominated/co-opted members in NMC body. So the total number of Prabhags would be 52.
Already social media was flooded with permutation and combination of new Prabhag system and its veracity would be put to test when NMC officially notifies their draft. According to State Government notification, NMC is going to have three-member Prabhag system. Since the strength of House is fixed at 156, all the Prabhags will have equal representation.
Meanwhile according to the programme, after publication of draft of Prabhag a Gazette notification is going to be issued. Thereafter, as per the process, NMC would provide 14-days period for inviting suggestions and objections from citizens. Civic body officials then would forward the submission from citizens to SEC with their analysis on February 16.
The next stage involves hearing of suggestions and objections on part of SEC for which time till February 26 is announced. For the same, SEC nominates one of the its officers who conduct the hearing in city. And the final notification regarding final shape of Prabhag will be notified on March 2, 2022.
While most of the sitting corporators and aspiring new corporators have gotten an assessment of the way their area of dominance is going to be curated from the existing Prabhags, still their guesses are going to be put to test on Tuesday. The notification by NMC would provide clear cut picture of the Prabhag and for the hopefuls it would help them take the final call on their candidature.
Earlier when one member ward system was announced for NMC elections, it had enthused several new aspirants who finally saw a good shot in the election arena. However their joy was short lived when State Government changed the criteria and said barring Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), for remaining Municipal Corporations where elections are due there would be multi-ward system with 3-members in each Prabhag.
The decision peeved several sitting corporators of ruling combination but since
the decision was by the respective parties ruling in State,
they had no option but to remain mum.